The ACCC welcomes the Government’s announcement today that it will move to strengthen Australia’s merger laws, bringing Australia into line with most other developed economies. The proposed reforms will be announced by the Treasurer, the Honourable Dr Jim Chalmers, at the 10th annual Bannerman Competition Lecture in Sydney today and follow submissions by the ACCC…
Read More Stronger Merger Reforms Welcomed by ACCC
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Total breaches of Code obligations have increased for a third consecutive year according to the latest report released by the Life Insurance Code Compliance Committee (Life CCC). Despite the total breaches rising by 9%, the Annual Industry Data and Compliance Report found that the number of customers impacted by breaches declined between 1 July 2022 and 30…
Read More Life Insurance Annual Data and Compliance Report 2022-2023: The Fall and Rise of Breaches
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The Productivity Commission is undertaking a study to assess the economic effects of national competition reforms. It is now inviting community members to share perspectives, experiences and expertise on national competition matters and modelling competition reforms. The Commission’s review is occurring against a backdrop of declining productivity growth in the past decade. As such, a…
Read More Submission Call for National Competition Policy
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The Centre for Women’s Economic Safety (CWES) welcomes the establishment of aParliamentary Inquiry into the effectiveness of financial services regulation in addressing financialabuse.The move follows calls by CWES for regulatory change so the financial sector can better respond tofinancial abuse and design safer financial products.More than 85% of women experiencing domestic and family violence experience…
Read More CWES Statement on the Inquiry into Financial Abuse by the Parliamentary Joint Committee
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Australians are being urged to check payment details directly with a business before paying an emailed invoice, following a rise in losses to payment redirection scams. Last year, Australians reported losing $16.2 million to payment redirection scams. Despite the total number of reports to Scamwatch decreasing by 28 per cent, the total amount lost increased…
Read More ACCC Warns Consumers of Fake Business Invoice Scams
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Australian authorities have never had the power to break up big businesses that behave badly. It’s a power available to courts in the United States and elsewhere, but not here – at least not unless the Greens succeed with a bill now before the Senate. The so-called Competition and Consumer Amendment (Divestiture Powers) Bill would…
Read More It’s time to give Australian courts the power to break up big firms that behave badly
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Below is the Centre for Media Transition’s website post on The Enforcement of Telecommunications Consumer Protections and the accompanying media release on the report by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). The website posts were released on 3/04/2024 and are available here (https://www.uts.edu.au/research/centre-media-transition/projects-and-research/enforcement-telecommunications-consumer-protections) and here (https://accan.org.au/media-centre/media-releases/2288-uts-enforcement-report). As noted by both the report and ACCAN,…
Read More 13 Years of ACMA Telecommunications Enforcement
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The telecommunications regulator, the ACMA, has developed a new regulation called the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard (the FH standard). The FH Standard will commence on March 29, and compliance is mandatory.
Read More ACCAN’s Quick Guide for Consumers to the new Financial Hardship Standard
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The Federal Court has found Vanguard Investments Australia contravened the law by making misleading claims about certain environmental, social and governance (ESG) exclusionary screens applied to investments in a Vanguard index fund. At a hearing before Justice O’Bryan on 8 March 2024, Vanguard admitted to engaging in conduct that was liable to mislead the public…
Read More ASIC Wins Greenwashing Case Against Vanguard
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First Nations and other consumer advocates have welcomed the extension of ASIC’s interim Stop Order on Coral Coast Distributors (Cairns) Ptd Ltd trading as Urban Rampage (Urban Rampage) retail stores, where customers enter agreements to pay for goods on credit through Centrepay deductions. The original stop order was imposed because ASIC received complaints about Urban…
Read More Continued Ban of Business Centrepay Use in Remote Australia Welcomed as Advocates Call for Broader Centrepay Reform
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“Taking into account the demographics of those who have already responded, we particularly want to hear from more adults under the age of 30, people for whom English is not their first language, and people in rural and regional parts of Australia.”
“Having responses that reflect the whole community’s experience will help us to identify the right issues that need to be explored more deeply in our inquiry. Findings from the consumer survey will be included as part of the ACCC’s interim report, due by the end of August,” Mr Keogh said.
Read More Consumers Respond to ACCC: Higher Grocery Prices Force Many to Sacrifice
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Yesterday the Parliament passed the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Fair Go for Consumers and Small Business) Bill 2024. This reform, which forms part of the Albanese Government’s Better Competition election commitment, establishes a designated complaints function within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) from July 2024. Today the Albanese Government releases the draft designated…
Read More Consultation Opens as Parliament Passes Designated Complaints Measure
